Audit cites charter school for noncompliance issues

Seven Generations Charter School in Emmaus must do a better job of filing financial statements, including retirement wages submitted to the state, according to state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.

In the first audit of the charter school, which reviewed the period June 30, 2010, to April 7, 2014, DePasquale said the school needs to correct problems with noncompliance with the state ethics law and errors in reporting employee pension data.

During a three-year period, members of the school's board of trustee and administrators either didn't file or were late filing statements of financial interest with the State Ethics Commission, according to a news release from DePasquale.

"Failure to comply with state Ethics Act filing requirements may sound to some as just a minor paperwork issue, but such failure to comply could prevent the public from having full knowledge about potential conflicts of interest involving the spending of tax dollars," DePasquale said in the release.

The charter school also may have overstated retirement wages to the Pennsylvania School Employee Retirement System, the audit found. That could have resulted in pension calculation errors.

The audit also found compensation reported for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years may have been inaccurately reported to PSERS for employees who chose to receive payments in lieu of health benefits, the news release states.

DePasquale noted in the audit that other charter schools are in worse condition.

"If you compare this audit of Seven Generations Charter School with an audit I released recently of the Helen Thackston Charter School in York, where we offered 52 recommendations for improvement, there really is no comparison," DePasquale said in the news release.

"The Helen Thackston Charter School is in serious trouble, while Seven Generations Charter School simply must focus on improving some management processes and stepping up student performance."

Seven Generations opened in 2009 and serves kindergarten through eighth grade students.

The charter school was cooperative during the audit and agreed with the findings, the news release said.